Minnesota football: Gophers could be dark horse in West Division next season

I might be getting a little ahead of myself here, but the Minnesota football team could actually win the West Division next season.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see the Gophers in the Rose Bowl in 2015? Well looking at the conference match-ups there is a possibility of that if the Gophers can just for knock off Ohio State and Michigan.

Minnesota opens up conference play at Michigan, which I believe is the toughest game on the schedule and one that Minnesota has a chance of winning because it’s early in conference play. These two teams will be feeling each other out and this gives the Gophers a chance to pull off an early season shocker.

The rest of the conference schedule is as follows:

Bye Week

Northwestern

Purdue

at Illinois

Bye Week

Iowa

Ohio State

at Nebraska

at Wisconsin

Minnesota gets to play Ohio State at home and has more home than away games. This is a very favorable schedule for next season.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see the Gophers here instead in 2015?

The last two games on the schedule will test Minnesota. Playing back-to-back road games against a few of the conference’s best teams is excruciatingly tough, but the early part of the schedule for Minnesota is favorable. I expect the Gophers to be playing their best football late and should have a chance to knock Nebraska and Wisconsin off on the road.

I love doing predictions so here is an early rundown of what I predict to be the wins and losses for the Gophers next season in conference play. The non-conference schedule is very weak so I’m predicting that Minnesota goes 4-0 there.

Wins: Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio State, Nebraska

Losses: Michigan, Wisconsin

A mark of 10-2 may not get Minnesota into the Rose Bowl, but it’d sure be a great step and could be enough to win the West.

Of course, the games need to be played out, but I really like the Gophers chances in 2014 and in the years to come under head coach Jerry Kill.